The exemplary embodiment relates to the reproduction of documents, either in hardcopy or digital form. It finds particular application in connection with a system and method for masking portions of text in the reproduced document, without altering the original document.
There are many instances where a user wishes to reproduce a digital or hardcopy document for viewing by a recipient while masking certain sensitive information in the document. For example, legal documents may be masked to redact confidential client information before distribution to others. Medical records may be made available to researchers with patient information masked. Business records relating to multiple employees may be masked to remove information about other employees before distribution to individual employees. Financial records may be masked to hide sensitive information. Typically, the masking involves whiting out the sensitive information with ink from a correction pen or applying cover-up tape to a hardcopy of the document and then making a further copy. This process can be time consuming, particularly when a large number of documents are to be processed. Additionally, it requires making a copy of the original and another of the masked copy to ensure that the original document remains unaltered and that sensitive information cannot be identified simply by removing a portion of the correction tape or ink on the copy. Further, where a large number of items are to be masked, confidentiality may be compromised when even a single item is accidentally missed.